Newly appointed chair of the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) Jim Birch has proclaimed his commitment to ensuring that the My Health Record develops into a robust system containing worthwhile information that can achieve the substantial benefits to safety and quality its backers propose.

Mr Birch, who was appointed as chairman of the new agency yesterday along with a board that includes health informatics researcher Johanna Westbrook, GP representative Eleanor Chew, Department of Health special adviser Paul Madden and jurisdictional chiefs Michael Walsh and Stephen Moo, said he was under no illusions that the job would be an easy one but said he would not have taken it on had he not been “utterly committed” to helping to make My Health Record work.